Water Conservation

There are many ways to conserve water in agricultural settings including increasing the water storage potential in the soil, capturing irrigation runoff and stormwater, and reducing water use to match crop needs. Increasing water storage potential in soil can be done through several methods that increase the carbon content or water absorption into the soil. Practices including composting, crop rotation, reduced tillage, mulching, land smoothing, cover crops and biochar. Water harvesting can include collecting the water for future use or allowing infiltration into groundwater. Cleaning the water of pollutants is an important aspect to consider in developing storage and infiltration solutions. Water harvesting and water storage technologies include designing ways to collect and store rainwater, sediment basins, vegetated treatment systems and woodchip bioreactors.

Water Quality, Conservation, Drought and Irrigation
Source: National Center for Appropriate Technology | Download free or low cost publications on a variety of conservation topics including measuring and conserving water, pump and motor maintenance, managing grazing in riparian areas, soil moisture monitoring, micro-irrigation and much more. Site also contains links to other information sources.

Soil Building for Resiliance
Source: CalCAN | Building healthier soils can help growers enhance the resilience of farm operations and cope with a changing climate while improving crop yields, increasing soil water holding capacity and water infiltration rate, increasing soil fertility, and decreasing input costs.

Water Use Efficiency & On-Farm Storage for Climate Resilience
Source: CalCAN | This webinar explores practices to help farmers bank more water in soils and catchments and improve water use efficiency on-farm, thereby increasing the water independence and resilience of farming systems when water is scarce and increasingly costly.

Cover Crops

Low residue cover crops or winter fallow vegetable production fields
Source: UCCE | Cover crops planted in fallow vegetable fields are an effective cultural practice for reducing erosion and protecting water quality during the winter. By reducing run-off volume and protecting the soil from erosion cover crops also minimize sediment and nutrient loads during rain events, and by taking up residual soil nitrate, they minimize nitrate leaching.

Cover Crop
Source: NRCS | This guide describes the types of cover crops that can be used to build soil organic matter and increase nitrogen in the soil and how to make decisions about which cover crop to use in the field.

Composting

Large Scale Composting
Source: Cornell University | This webpage contains links to large scale composting examples, designing and testing, health and safety, and how to use composted materials. It also covers odor management, marketing compost, and both manure or non-manure composts.

Soil Management and Composting
Source: West Virginia University | Direct application of organic matter and composting are discussed including with the issues to consider and manage when considering utilizing waste organic matter on farms.

Biochar

Sonoma Biochar Initiative
Source: Sonoma Ecology Center | The Sonoma County Biochar Project features production of biochar from local wood wastes, field testing of its use and effectiveness at three local farms, and demonstration of renewable energy capture and use.

International Biochar Initiative
Source: IBI | This webpage contains information on how biochar works, why it improves soil functions and reduced greenhouse gas emissions and how to learn more about biochar.

Water Harvesting & Farm Ponds

Farm Ponds for Irrigation
Source: CA Ag Water Stewardship Initiative | A description of the benefits and challenges of installing farm ponds for collecting water for irrigation. This website also contains many useful links to resources for constructing farm ponds as well as case studies.

Woodchip Bioreactors
Source: Minnesota Dept of Agriculture | Illustration and description of how woodchip bioreactors work to remove nitrate from large volumes of drainage water. Photo of digging the trench, location and cost estimate.

Keyline Design

Keyline Design for Water storage
Source: CA Ag Water Stewardship Initiative | Description of the Keyline design for increasing water storage through landscape countouring to collect and distribute rain water. Includes the benefits along with links to useful resources and case studies.

AWQA Calendar Updates

Bimonthly calendar of agriculture related events on the Central Coast are sent out via email. To join the mailing list and receive event notifications, send me an email request to pam.krone-davis@noaa.gov with the heading Add Me To Receive the AWQA Events Calendar.

Biodiversity in National Organic Progam (NOP)

Biodiversity conservation is fundamental to organic farming and required by the NOP. Farmers, ranchers, wild crop harvesters, and handlers must maintain or improve their soil, water, wetlands, woodlands, and wildlife: https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/NOP%205020%20Biodiversity%20Guidance%20Rev01%20%28Final%29.pdf

Upcoming Events

Recent research has identified populations of powdery mildew that are resistant to FRAC 11 fungicides (strobilurins), FRAC 3 (DMIs), or both. A collaboration of researchers and extentionists are working to develop novel diagnostic tools and[...]

Organic growers rely on the many services biodiversity provides, but knowing where to find accessible information can be challenging. This webinar will provide an overview of three tools to help you identify and manage wildlife,[...]

In this course you will learn the key grazing planning principles and practices for improving land health and productivity. You will learn the steps to this simple approach to grazing planning so that you can[...]

Version 3 of EPA’s Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST) will be released in early 2018 (https://www.epa.gov/exposure-assessment-models/wmost). WMOST is designed to facilitate integrated water management among communities, utilities, watershed organizations, consultants, and others. WMOST identifies[...]